THE URBAN COMBAT SYSTEM

“The training of the Roman army is to the extent that their drills are bloodless battles, and their battles are bloody drills.” – Titus Flavius Josephus, from the The Jewish Wars.

This simple observation from Josephus on how the Roman army trained their solders for battle has proven to be a great inspiration to how we train today. Through our reality-based system we strive to make our training mimic that of which we will face in the today’s modern world. It might not be pretty and choreographed, but neither is real combat.

Our classes make use of actual CCTV footage so we can review violent encounters and reverse engineer them to learn how people truly react in the face of an unprovoked attack. Using our findings as a base line we only chose techniques that are congruent with your brains natural responses. We then tailor our drills and sparring to mimic the chaotic nature of physical combat. The result is that students develop fluidity of thought and can easily adapt to unpredictable situations.

BRIAN STRATHDEE
REALTY-BASED SELF-DEFENSE INSTRUCTOR

Brian Strathdee began his martial arts training in 1992 when he started training in Kenpo Karate eventually earning a Second Degree Black Belt. During this time he also began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing to round out his skill set.

In 1997 his interest in psychology and how it relates to combat began to develop while working at a locked psychiatric hospital. The fact that when facing a conflict, some people could be spontaneously violent while others freeze was fascinating and demanded further exploration. This is a course of study that he continues to this day and is a cornerstone of his system.

In 2003 Mr. Strathdee started Urban Combat to serve as a testing ground to integrate and refine the concepts that he acquired over the past decade. This also gave him the opportunity to further expand the curriculum to include combat focus shooting, protective driving, mass shooting, home invasion, OC sprays and tactical first aid.

Mr. Strathdee defines his style as a reality based mixed martial arts, because the techniques and concepts are trained athletically against resisting opponents. His training model is simple, study violent encounters to determine how people react in the face of violence, then use progressive sparring to understand how to survive such encounters. The result: simple concepts, less technique and better survivability in less time.

Since Urban Combats inception, Mr. Strathdee has had the opportunity to instruct police, military and civilians’ world-wide, and considers his students his greatest teachers.